⌜ chapter twenty ⌟

"Hey, Scar." Tyler walks over from the front of the bookstore. "Mr. Feeny's on the phone, something's going on with Shawn."

"Shit." She mutters as she drops a book back onto the pile that she picked it up from and jogs to the front desk. "Mr. Feeny?"

"I'm sorry to bother you at work, Ms. Black, but it seems important." Her old teacher tells her.

"What happened?"

"I was beginning the lesson, and he said that he didn't want to do it. He stood up, was very disruptive, told Miss Lawrence to stop being crazy and to sit on Mr. Matthews' lap." He tells her, and she sighs. "It seemed out of nowhere. I asked him to leave, and Cory went with him."

"Yeah, uh... I was afraid something like this would happen."

"You know what's going on?" He asks, and she nods as she looks at Tyler.

"Yeah, I know exactly what happened. Shawn's drunk." She tells him.

"What?" Tyler questions.

"Come again?" Mr. Feeny asks, sounding confused.

"He and Cory were arrested over the weekend after a party where they got drunk." She explains to them. "I kinda figured it wouldn't be Shawn's last encounter with alcohol, but I've been busy with work and my classes... I should've kept a closer eye on him."

"Where is he?" Tyler asks. "Let's go."

"You said that he left with Cory?" Letty asks Mr. Feeny.

"Yes, before school let out." He tells her.

"Cory would take him back to the apartment. I gotta go, Mr. Feeny. I'm sorry about class, thank you for calling." She hangs up the phone as Tyler holds the door open for her.

Luckily, they don't have any customers at the moment. He flips the open sign to closed, then closes and locks the door. Stuffing the keys to the store into his front pocket, the two quickly leave and head for the other side of town, wanting to get back to the apartment as quickly as possible.

As they leave his truck and run up outside the apartment, they see Jack making his way toward the entrance. Letty starts calling him, and he turns to see what's going on. "Hey, is everything okay?" He asks as looks between her and Tyler, who he rarely sees at all.

"No, not exactly. Feeny called me at work — Cory brought Shawn home early because he's drunk." She tells him, and his eyebrows furrow as he looks between her and Tyler.

"He's what?"

"I— Just— Come on." She grabs the sleeve of his jacket and pulls him with her.

They skip the elevator and all three immediately head up the stairs. Alcohol isn't something that any of them play with, and Shawn drinking isn't something that any of them will take lightly. The three of them walk into the apartment and see Shawn sitting on the couch with an open beer bottle in his hand.

"What are you doin'?" Jack questions as he takes the bottle from him and passes it over to the brunette behind him.

"It's a beer." Shawn scoffs. "Wha-What's the big deal here?"

"Scarlett?" The older of the Hunter boys turns to her for answers.

"Dumb and Dumber here got drunk at a party Friday night." The brunette tells him as Tyler takes the bottle from her hand and goes to pour it down the drain.

"Check the fridge for me, dump whatever's in there." Jack tells Tyler as he walks farther into the apartment. "A beer is a big deal for us." He says as he looks back at his brother, now standing on the opposite side of him than he was before.

"Oh, goody. Goody." Shawn says sarcastically as he gets to his feet, rubbing his hands together as he looks at the older boy. "Now I get the lecture from the big brother who I've known all of six months."

"Well, you won't listen to me, so..." Letty says as the door opens again behind her, and Eric walks in. "You promised me that you wouldn't drink."

"When?" He questions.

"When Eric and I went to your class a few years ago — we were talking to everyone, and you promised me that you wouldn't drink in high school." She says as she moves out of Eric's way, but he stops near the door, shutting it behind him.

"I made that promise years ago, and I had no idea what you were getting all worked up about."

"This, Shawn! This is what I was getting worked up about." She tells him. "It is three o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, and I can smell the alcohol on your breath."

"He doesn't have a clue, does he?" Jack asks as he looks at Letty, and she shakes her head.

"No, I've never told him." She sighs. "How could I?"

"Told me what?" Shawn questions as he looks between his brother and Letty.

"About Dad." Jack says, getting progressively angrier, and the younger boy looks back at him.

"Yeah. Dad used to drink, and then he stopped. Next."

"Do you know why he stopped drinking?" He questions.

"Because he ran out of money." He says with an amused smile, not taking this seriously at all.

"Do you know why my mom left him?"

"Because she went for a guy with more money?"

"Shawn." Letty scolds through gritted teeth.

"She left him because he was an abusive, ugly drunk." Jack tells him, and Shawn lunges forward.

Letty was expecting the outburst, so she grabs him before he can get his hands on his older brother. "Don't you ever talk about my father like that!" Shawn yells as he tries to get out of the hold that she has on him, but she keeps his arms behind his back.

"He's my father too, man!"

"Shawn, he's right!" Letty tells him, and he stops fighting against her. She lets go of him, and he turns to face her while she talks. "It's why she left him and took Jack, why she never gave him any of our letters. Unlike my mom, she did right by her kid when she left the abuse... It's why none of us drink — aside from Reggie. But he's never had a problem with it, and he doesn't do it a lot. And it's why I was so pissed when Alec showed up drunk."

"Alcoholism is in our family, and you shouldn't drink." Jack tells him.

"You promised me before that you wouldn't drink." The brunette continues. "And fine — it was years ago, maybe you didn't remember. But after the other night, and right now? Shawn, come on. You have got to see that there's a problem."

Shawn lets out a chuckle, the alcohol he's already consumed making his head too foggy to fully process what they're saying about his father. "Nobody's listening to me. Okay? I drink this stuff..." He reaches for his bottle on the table, but comes up empty because Tyler already poured it down the drain. "...because I like it. It makes me feel good. I have no problem."

"Yeah, your dad thought the same thing before his first wife left him." Letty says. "Look where he is now. Gone...and left you with me."

"Stop talking about my dad."

"There are so many things that you've missed. Like how pissed Alec was that Thanksgiving when your parents had wine in the trailer." She continues. "Why do you think it was so hard for your dad to hold down a job? Why so much of your childhood he told nothing but stories that he m—"

"I said stop!" Shawn snaps as he moves forward and shoves Letty into the door behind her. The loud thud shocks him, and he freezes in his place.

Eric starts to move forward to defend her, but stops when she holds her hand up. The motion wasn't meant for him though, and he looks over to see Tyler now halfway across the living room from where he was before. The older boys stay in their spots, watching Shawn, who's now at a complete stand-still as he stares wide-eyed at his sister.

His brown eyes turn glassy as he blinks, and he turns as his gaze flits to everyone in the room. No one looks more surprised than Cory, who's been silent the entire time to let the others handle the situation. He knows that it's usually best to let Letty deal with whatever Shawn's going through, but he had no idea that it even could escalate to this.

"Scar?" Tyler's voice is low, and she removes her gaze from Shawn for the first time as she glances over at him.

"I'm fine." She tells him.

"H-How did that just happen?" Shawn asks as he turns back to his sister.

"It's the alcohol, bud." Letty says as she moves closer to him. "It's one of the many, many things that I've tried to protect you from since...as long as I can remember."

"I'm sorry."

"I know." She nods. "Mrs. Matthews told Cory that this wasn't him, and this isn't you either. But you know now what it can do to you, so you have a choice to make. And as much as I want to protect you from everything, this is something that you have to do yourself — a choice that you have to make for yourself."

"I'm done. I never wanna hurt you again." He tells her, and she nods.

"Reggie and Alec found someone to talk to awhile ago." Tyler says, and they both look over at him. "He's a specialist — helps people like us figure out how to deal with this sort of thing."

"I can take you." Jack tells his brother, earning his attention. "This is something we could both benefit from."

"Yeah." Shawn nods before turning back to Letty. "I'm-I'm so sorry."

"Hey, come here." She moves closer to him and rests her hands on either side of his face. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I know you, I know your heart. I love you, and I forgive you." She tells him, and he nods as more tears well up in his eyes. "And we will all work through this together."

"Okay. Thank you." He takes a deep breath, and she pulls him to her so that she can hug him. "I love you." He fights back tears as he wraps his arms around her.

—

"Scarlett, can I talk to you for a minute?" Mr. Matthews asks as he walks to the front of the store where she's working behind the register, and the brunette turns to look at him.

Letty doesn't really want to talk to him right now — as she's sure this is about last week with what happened with the boys — but she's at work, and he's her boss. She doesn't really have much choice in the matter. Besides, she can't put it off forever.

"Shawn isn't the only one that I owed an apology." He says, not worrying about customers overhearing because it's late and they're closing up. "I shouldn't have assumed that Shawn was the one who initiated the drinking, and I'm sorry. Really and truly."

"I get that I'm not his mother in the...traditional sense." Letty starts. "But I babysat him my entire childhood, and I helped him with his homework. I made sure that he always had a roof over his head, and a lot of time I was one making the gross boy shower. I gave him lunch money whenever he needed it, and I have done everything in my power to take care of him. So, no, I'm not his mother, but I did raise him."

"I know." He nods.

"He had never touched alcohol before, and I didn't think it was him that had convinced Cory to drink that night. But I didn't show up and attack Cory...even though I knew that it would have more of a long-term effect on Shawn than it would him. Because I know that the boys would never do anything to intentionally hurt each other." She tells him. "You were so quick to assume the worst in Shawn, to place the blame. Do you have any idea the effect it has on us when people so easily and so often look down their noses on us? What are we supposed to think of ourselves when the people whose opinion we've always trusted...turns their back on us so fast?"

"That wasn't my—"

"But that's what you did." She cuts him off. "This was a real problem for Shawn...and you were ready to throw him out. He needed help, and you were ready to leave him alone."

"You're right." Mr. Matthews nods. "What I did was wrong, and there is no excuse. I don't know what I would've done if Cory didn't speak out so adamantly in his defense, and if Shawn didn't have you and your friends looking after him the way that you always have. If this had turned into a bigger problem for him... I never would've forgiven myself. He deserved more from me, and I'm ashamed to have let him down."

Letty takes a deep breath as she looks down at her hands. She's fighting back tears because she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to help Shawn, and she didn't feel like she had Mr. and Mrs. Matthews to back her up like she's always had. Not only that — she no longer feels like she can go to them. And there is so much piling up on her that she doesn't tell anyone.

"I've spoken to Shawn, and I think he's forgiven me for what happened that night." He says, and she nods; she knows that he has. "Can you?"

"You were one of the only people that I had trusted would never believe the worst in us." She says as she looks back at him, and he sees the glassy look in her dark eyes. "Now, I feel like that's all people see."

"Is there more going on than what happened last weekend?" He asks, and she scoffs.

The main entrance opens before either of them can say anything else, and a blonde woman walks into the shop with a young boy following behind her. Letty quickly wipes her eyes as she tries to regain her composure.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late, but, uh... I'm looking for Scarlett Black." She says, and the brunette's eyebrows furrow as she looks at her.

"Who's asking?" The teenager questions, always wary of strangers.

"My name's Emma." She tells her. "I'm actually trying to find Alec. I know that he moved back here to Philadelphia, but I can't find anything on where he might be. I know that he has a younger sister named Scarlett that he was looking for, and public records show that she works here and at a bookstore. Um..."

"I'm Scarlett." Letty says. "You said your name is Emma?"

"I'll take it Alec hasn't mentioned us." She nods as she looks down at the boy, smoothing out the dark brown hair at the back of his head. "I guess I'm not surprised — sharing the personal details of his life never was an easy task for him."

"Oh my God." The brunette mutters, and Mr. Matthews looks at her.

"Is everything alright, Scarlett?" He asks as his gaze flickers between the two women.

"You're his ex-girlfriend." Letty says as Emma looks back at her. "And his son."

"I really need to see him." The blonde tells her, and she nods. "Do you know where I can find him?"

"Yeah, uh... I live with him." The teenager says. "I ca— I can take you to our house now. I know he really wants to see you both." She says, and Emma nods as she looks back at her son.